A US woman who shot and killed her husband and two adult children before taking her own life is thought to have committed the shocking crime as a result of being ostracised from the religion she was raised in.

A federal judge sentenced a former Arkansas judge Wednesday to five years in prison — a stiffer punishment than prosecutors recommended — after he admitted giving young male defendants lighter sentences in return for personal benefits that included sexual favours.

Every time I tell a mate I’m doing a story on cryptocurrency, they invariably ask me the same two questions: should they invest their own hard-earned money, and which cryptocurrency will get them a Lamborghini/yacht/island quickest?

In a 60 Minutes online exclusive, reporter Liz Hayes quizzed Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on his relationship with the unpredictable Twitter aficionado and US president Donald Trump ahead of their meeting at the White House Friday.

Sydney hospital hosts major cancer trial

Australian researchers will lead a major international clinical trial for childhood cancer using a drug previously prescribed to treat African Sleeping Sickness.

Sydney Children's Hospital will host the international trial, which is being run across 14 hospitals in North America.

If the trial proves successful it could fundamentally change the approach to treatment for relapsed neuroblastoma, researchers say.

Neuroblastoma, a malignant (cancerous) tumour that develops from nerve tissue, accounts for 15 per cent of all paediatric cancer deaths in Australia.

The trial will use a small molecule drug, called Difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), which has been used for treating African Sleeping Sickness, a parasitic disease of humans and animals that is spread by the bites of tsetse flies.

"The drug DFMO essentially makes the current chemotherapies more effective in killing neuroblastoma cells," said trial leader, Dr David Ziegler, Paediatric Oncologist at Sydney Children's Hospital.

"To initiate this trial we developed a new formulation of DFMO that can be given to children as a syrup.

"We hope that this will be a new way forward for children diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma."